The White Sox were here at Target Field back in July, back when the Twins were wrapping up their lone winning month, when they felt like they were turning their season around. “It seems like forever ago,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said, because the Twins haven’t won a home series since then.
That can change today, though. The Twins have won two of the first three games against Chicago this weekend, and a matinee victory today would give them the series victory, and allow Minnesota to finish with a 5-5 home record against the White Sox.
“The professionalism of our sport, it kind of demands you find a way to come out and compete, regardless of your circumstances,” Molitor said of his last-place team. “You a little bit better feeling after you’ve won a couple games. It’s certainly more fun to win.”
Andrew Albers has heard about that, but it’s sort of a faint memory for him. Remember Albers’ smashing debut in August 2013, when he opened his major-league career with back-to-back wins, pitching 17 consecutive scoreless innings? Albers was the toast of Minneapolis and Saskatchewan for a few days — but he hasn’t recorded a victory since. In fact, Albers’ team has lost the last eight major-league games he has appeared in.
“When you think you make pitches and they get hit out of the park, it tells you your margin of error, compared to Triple-A, is different,” Molitor said. “He knows what he needs to do — it’s all about location for him. If you’re going to rely on command and deception, you’ve got to get the ball where you want to.”
Given his lack of velocity — Albers’ threw only one pitch that reached 89 mph in his last start — it’s hard to tell how many opportunities to pitch Albers will receive. It’s hard to imagine him having a much better opportunity to break that winless streak than today.
Here are the lineups for the final game of the series:
WHITE SOX
Eaton CF
Anderson SS
Cabrera LF
Abreu 1B
Frazier 3B
Saladino DH
Garcia RF
Smith C
Sanchez 2B
Ranaudo RHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Polanco SS
Mauer DH
Plouffe 1B
Kepler RF
Sano 3B
Rosario LF
Murphy C
Buxton CF
Albers LHP
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La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts.
Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.
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